


Here Comes A Greek Tragedy

by Nuhra



Category: The Grisha Trilogy - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Bittersweet, Character Death, F/M, Inspired by Eros and Psyche (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore), Inspired by Hades and Persephone (Ancient Greek Religion & Lore)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-15 15:07:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,142
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29560953
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nuhra/pseuds/Nuhra
Summary: Castaway, Alina thought only one thing - She was going to die. Little did she know in the darkness she would be stolen away. Taken by a man many feared, and loved, the Darkling. What is to come next for the newly awakened Sun Summoner is only a mystery - when the world needs her most.
Relationships: The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova/Alina Starkov
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	1. Prolouge

**Author's Note:**

> The title comes from "Greek Tragedy" by The Wombats.

**Prologue**

☽

**After**

With feet treading on the floorboards, Alina paced, her mind restless and heart pounding. Walking back and forth in front of her bed, she thought over and over. Replaying in her mind her options. What she could and should do now. Wondering if she was making the right decision.

It was only a matter of time before Aleksander would come up the stairs and greet her. He’d open her dark wood door and she’d collapse into his arms. She was waiting for him, hoping to be greeted with him and yet she couldn’t quell the sinking feeling that came over her.

So many night’s she’d fallen into him without question. Taking in all of him. Wanting him, as he’d also wanted her.

It was only a matter of time. Only a moment before he’d arrive and the more the clock ticked the more anxiety filled her. It seemed so perfect on the outside. But she couldn’t unhear voices twisting doubts inside her.

“If he really loved you, he’d let you be free,” Zoya had said.

“You can’t trust him,” Genya had said.

In his mansion hidden away from the world Alina had lived here for what felt like a life time. Behind blossom gardens and heavy stone walls. She was living alone with only Aleksander. Each day by his side, sharing meals, laughs and tears all in this one home. He gave her everything she could have ever asked for but on one condition.

“You stay by my side, Alina. You stay by my side and never leave me.” Aleksander commanded.

She’d been told his the moment he’d opened his doors to her. When she was greeted with lavish staircases and glittering chandeliers. His voice had been was raspy and filled with sorrow. Perhaps he felt the same sorrow she’d known alone in the darkness of the woods. Or maybe Alina was just hopeful.

With Alina’s hand pressing to his cheek, his hollow eyes staring at her hopefully.

Alina had only think of one answer,”Of course, Let’s stay together forever.”

H ad she regretted those words? Would she take them back i f she could?

She didn’t know. Alina loved him with all her heart, but the loneliness stabbed her like a knife. Any attempt to cross the walls of the mansion would leave her in darkness. Locking herself in her room, in an effort to starve herself, would only leave him in tears.

Hammer ing on the door, he’d bellow,”Alina, please come out.”

Waiting for hours. Calling to her. Pleading.

“Alina, you must eat. I don’t want you to die. Please don’t leave me.”

No matter how much she tried she was to be left in his cage.

Alina was left with the doubts her friends had planted inside her. Racked with guilt over doubting Aleksander’s love for her. He was only trying to protect her. He’d shown her nothing but kindness, there was no way he’d want her to suffer. Not when he cried when she was in misery.

Time continued to pass, and before Alina could collect her thoughts, her door opened. She jolted, quickly spinning to face it. In a black  _kefka_ embroided in gold, Aleksander greeted her with a kind smile.

“Good evening,” He said coolly.

“Good evening,” Alina replied.

He steppe d forward. Alina’s face was stricken with a frown her  brows furrowed, shaking her head she pushed herself into his arms.

“Alina,”Aleksander said,”What ever is the matter?”

Alina buried her face into his chest, shaking her head. He  held her tightly and kissed her forehead.

“Do you love me, Aleksander?” Alina asked, her voice muffled.

“More than the world.”

Aleksander kissed her cheeks, wiping the tears that threatened to fall down them at the edges of her eyes.

“Will you let me go outside?” Alina asked.

He said nothing.

“If you loved me, wouldn’t you let me go outside?” Alina pleaded.

Alina felt him withdraw, with his hands cupping her face. His voice suddenly became cold, the words coming from his mouth running a shiver down her spine.

”Would you be safe alone outside?” He said. Were you safe when you washed up on the shores of the Unsea alone being hunted by Fjerdans?”

“I-”

“Could you live in this world without my protection? Are you still lonely Alina? Even after I let people come to visit you? Are you ungrateful?”

“NO! I -” Alina shut her mouth, pulling herself into Aleksander’s body, hiding herself, wanting to disappear. “Forget I said anything.”

Alina stilled, Aleksander running fingers through her chocolate hair. Both of them taking in the silence. Alina stretched onto her tip toes, and pressed a kiss to Aleksander’s lips.

“I’m yours,” Alina said.

She hoped the words would sent a rush through him. Under neath in the pale moonlight seeping through the arch windows, she tried to make out if he was smiling or frowning. If her words had made any difference to him at all but Aleksander’s face was unreadable. As their steps shuffled, she pulled on his kefka and  leading him to her bed .

Alina sat down, her weight  pulling him next to her. Sucking in his warmth she forced another kiss onto him, as he took her in. Embracing Alina, she left  him wanting more. More. She held in closely, her lips on his.

She wanted to leave him screaming for more, she wanted to make him desperate for her and only her. Addicted to _her_.

“Aleksander,” She muttered. “Yours and only yours.”

“Alina,” He rasped between his scattered breathing.

Pulling the breath from his lungs, laying him out on her bed. Him over her, holding her, his heat overwhelming her. She could feel her throat close up. Her mind only able to think of Aleksander.

The Aleksander who’d found her in the darkness of the forest. The man who’d welcomed her when she had no where else to hide. The Darkling who kept her hidden.

“Aleksander,” She said, as his lips pressed into hers. He was so warm.

Carefully Alina’s fingers crawled. As she continued to embrace him, her fingertips felt under her pillow and tighten around a dagger was concealed underneath it.

T he voice ran in her head again, the anxiety she tried to force out of herself hitting her in the gut. It was far too late to have any regrets. Alina had made up her mind, she’d chosen her decision, and she was prepared to lay in this bed forever.


	2. Jump Into The Fog

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: This chapter has a character death and is violent. It has blood - please read with caution. 
> 
> This chapter title comes from "The Wombats - Jump Into The Fog".

**Chapter 1**

☽

**Jump Into The Fog  
**

Darkness stretched out in front of Alina as she held tightly to the skiff’s  railing , beckoning her to fall inside it. The other cartographers  yelling out  behind her read ying to enter the Shadow Fold. Mal had exchanged glances with her, giving her a kind smile. Her cheeks blushed, as her gaze quickly darted to the floor.

He’d been her best friend since she was a child and Alina was worried they were drifting a part, as when Alina was prepared to bid him farewell he’d gone off to flirt with the other girls. Flirting with the other girls, like always. He didn’t care much when Alexei teased her either he was just being, “One of the boys.”

Any excuses Mal made for them or himself made Alina’s heart sink.

She saw the masts fall down, as the skiff began to move. Alina felt herself flinch her, toes curling in her shoes. The skiff began to steer into the darkness, drifting soundlessly over the ashen sands. Again Alina looked back at Mal as he spoke with Alexei, smiling.

Was he not scared? Could he not feel himself sweating or shaking? He was laughing, as Alina continued to stare at him. Briefly he caught her a gaze, mouthing to her.

“We are fine.”

Alina gave a meek nod in return as he continued to talk amongst them. She walked to the front of the skiff, looking out at the Shadow Fold, the black curtain coming closer and closer, till the whole boat had crossed it’s boarder. Her fingers dug into the wood. The darkness stretching out endlessly.

She heard people calling out and walking behind her. The words Mal mouthed to her repeating in her head,  _ We  _ _ a _ _ re fine. _

The skiff continued on in the darkness. People kept directing orders pacing over the deck, others watched the edges of the skiff pointing their rifles.

_We are fine._

Mal  was on the other end of the ship, his rifle  lifted in  to the air focused on the possibility of monsters coming. Alina grit her teeth, her  heart beginning to hammer as she hears the distant sound of wings beating.

_We are fine._

A blood curdling scream pierced the air. Yelling and fingers pointing upwards, the sound of guns being shot, as a Volcra, ugly winged monsters dwelling within the Unsea, began diving towards their skiff.

_We are fine._

“MONSTERS!” Called a Grisha.

“PULL BACK, PULL BACK!” Called another.

Flames shot through the air, burning through one of the many Volcra that circled above them. They continued to screech and cry. More fire and gusts whirled around them. Alina snapped her attention back to Mal, and Alexei.

Alexei pointing his gun at the creature, pulling the trigger as a bullet ripped into it’s flesh, it’s skin barely pierced. The Volcra screeched, it’s screams tore the air a part. Alexei shot again, and again. His bullets barely harming it. The Volcra bearing it’s crooked teeth at Alexei, lunging towards him, and sinking a heavy gash into his neck, blood spraying from his wound.

Alexei couldn’t even utter a cry before he fell to the deck lifeless.

It went by too fast . As the shadows and Volcra swooped down at them. Grisha screaming and commanding orders. Inferni casting flames into the air,  alongside other Grisha using gust, and water. The Volcra’s leathery wings  beat in the air ,as  their bodies twisted to escape from the Grisha's attacks .  The flames  burnt their flesh,  and appeared to be  more effective than the  rifles of the foot-soldiers.

A weight pushed against Alina, she let out a scream, pulling her hands over her face. Only she hadn’t felt sharp teeth bite into her, nor claws opening her skin. She peered over her palms, as a blonde female Inferni had pushed her aside shielding her from a Volcar standing over her.

Alina hadn’t even noticed the monster was so close to her.

The Grisha summoned a burst of flames at the it, a handful of fire pushed right into it’s ugly face. The Volcra hissed, it’s sharp claws slicing through the air. The Grisha cried, as her hands fell from  her wrists, her red blood spilling all over the skiffs wood. Standing helplessly with no way of defending herself, the Volcar  too k her  life .

The Grisha’s blood had  spilt onto Alina. Her pale hands stained with her blood, Alina trembled. Her fingertips shaking.  Crimson drenched into her  palms , sticking to her skin. Her fingertips  were  trembling. The Volcr a that’d killed that Grisha was biting into her flesh. Her green eyes glassy.

That Grisha had just been alive and now she was no more. Only a body to be eaten by the disgusting creatures of the Unsea. The Volcar  glared at Alina with it’s hollow eyes, it’s jagged teeth bared in it’s gaping mouth.

Alina wanted to run, she wanted to scream, but she was frozen.

The Volcra lunged, and Alina screamed once again.

“ALINA!” An arm pulled her away from the monster.

Mal.

Mal began to pull her, stabbing his knife into the Volcra. His knife digging into the Volcra’s eye, and ripping down it’s face. The monster giving an inhuman yelp.

“ALINA, RUN!” He yelled at Alina.

“Mal.” Alina gasped. “MAL!” 

Alina tried to  leap towards him, but he put his free arm up, she  stopped . His other hand gripped the dagger, staving off the Volcra in front of them, as  it growled viciously. With a single eye glaring at them, it’s other one tightly shut with it’s dark blood gushing out of the wound.

“Alina, run, maybe you can get out of here alive,” Mal said.

Alina opened her mouth but Mal interrupted her.

“DON’T ARGUE WITH ME. RUN, JUST RUN.”

Alina  got to her feet and  stepped back. The Volcra lunged, Mal stabbed it in the throat, it’s jaws ripped into hi m . Blood sp r ayed out of him. Alina’s breath left her. Her feet didn’t move. All the sound in the wor l d was gone. Mal began to fall, the Volcra falling with h im.

Alina reached out, tears pricking her eyes, her lips quivered.

She cried,”MAL!”

And then there was light.

A blinding halo, shining around Alina. The rays of lights stirring around Alina, and in a violent sunburst rippled into the air. The wounded and fallen Grisha all cast into the light. The shadows of the Fold fading, the Volcra all screeching in terror or pain. They could have almost sounded human.

If it had been any other time Alina may have felt afraid, but her veins were being too engulfed with adrenaline for her to scream again. With shaking legs, as the sunbeams waded off the monsters, making them fly away. They all hide from her light. The skiffs deck was covered in bodies – both human and Volcra. There was no sound. No more yells or screams. Only silence.

Everywhere Alina stepped was stained with blood. But her boots, pants and shirt were already  drenched in a deep red, the splattering patterns churning her stomach. People new and old, laying across the de c k with the monster s , wounded and lifeless. 

Alina tried to ignore it. Ignore the stench of death assaulting her senses as she wobbled over to Mal. She reached out, falling to the side of him.  He laid still, a gash lining his  shoulder .

“Mal,” Alina managed, reaching her hands to touch him, cupping his cheeks. “Open your eyes, Mal.”

Gingerly she placed his head rest on her lap. His eyes  were  closed tightly. 

“Mal, please. Open your eyes,” Her voice quivered.

His face was pale, yet somehow Mal made a low mumble,”Alina…”His voice was rough, and faintly, his eyes still tightly shut. The sound of his pain stabbed a dagger into her heart.

“MAL – YOU’RE-”

“The light…”

Alina shut her mouth, unable to stop tears from welling up in her eyes.

“That light was yours, wasn’t it?” He asked.

“I don’t know…” Alina admitted.

“I saw it,” He continued. “I saw the light come from you, Alina. You… you’re a Sun Summoner.”

Sun Summoner. A title only recalled in old fairy tales, something of legend and yet the words came so seriously from Mal’s lips.

Alina said,“I don’t know what I am. Please, don’t talk so much Mal, you’re hurt. I need to take you away from here, we need to run! Those monsters will come back any moment and I don’t know if that light will come back-”

“It will.”

“What?”

“I saw that light come from you Alina. You have to be a Sun Summoner, why else are you the only one still standing?”

“Mal-”

“I’m not going to make it even if you take me with you – I’ll only slow you down. Alina, run.” His voice was getting fainter. Alina stiffened.

She embraced Mal, holding him tightly. “Mal, please. Don’t leave me.”

“You must survive, Alina Starkov, Sun Summoner,” He said with a smile almost laughing. 

Alina could feel his breath getting fainter. Alina cried but he didn’t say another word. Even if Mal was still alive now he wouldn’t be for much longer.

Alina thought of light. She thought of the suns rays and tried to burn a light like she had moments before. 

She would live, live for it was Mal’s final wish.

A memory fluttering within Alina’s mind. Of them as children, Mal and Alina, when a groups of strangers had come to their orphanage. Looking over all the children. They wanted to find Grisha. To take them away and turn those children into soldiers. Alina had been chosen, dragged away, taken away from Mal.

She’d screamed and cried. She wanted Mal. She needed Mal.

She was able to escape and return to his side. And from that time forward Alina had pushed those feelings down. Pushed down the reality that she was a Grisha. Being a Grisha meant she’d never be with Mal again. She’d give up everything in the world for Mal.

Her whole life it’d just been them. Sharing meals at the orphanage, skating on ice in the middle of Winter, and sharing her deepest feelings with Mal. She kept Her secret locked tight for Mal alone, she kept the sun she’d summoned hidden away to the point she’d forgotten it even existed.

She’d kept the secret to stay with Mal but now...

Alina turned up her head to the quiet darkness. Her eyes were welling up with tears. They rolled down her cheeks and fell onto Mal’s face. Alina used the few patches of her sleeve left unstained to wipe Mal’s face, continuing to tremble and weep as her heart was being twisted with a knife.

"I’ll survive,” She whispered, giving Mal one final embrace, holding him tightly.

He was not going to speak to her again, tease her or share a meal with her ever again. Mal was  gone .

Like the Grisha woman who’d saved Alina from the Volcra. Gone.

Everyone who’d come on this expedition only to be slain by the unholy monsters of the Fold. No one was left.

Only Alina survived.

What was she meant to do? She was alive but why? Alina was not good at anything, and yet she’d survived, because…

Because of the light.

She thought carefully, trying to summon light. Letting a faint spark inside her light, she managed to muster a small glowing light around her. Gently letting go of Mal she whispered,”Goodbye, Malyen Oretsev.”

A heavy weight pulling on Alina as she walked away from him.

_ Let him go,  _ Said a little voice in her head.

Reluctantly she  stepped further and further away from him . Giving one last look at Mal. Taking in every detail of his skin, his short brown hair, his strong arms. Everything that made Mal himself and everything that made Alina love him.

Alina scanned the ship, finding a small rowing boat sitting at the back. It took a mighty effort for her to heave it down the skiff and into the dark sand below. Alone she began to row. Somehow moving, the skiff becoming smaller and smaller in the distance, as she kept rowing. Alone. For hours with only her light to keep her safe until she was out of the Fold.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to leave a comment or a kudos~

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to leave a comment or kudos!


End file.
